Choice 30-day better money challenge

Money
1

Hi,
I just noticed the Choice 30-day Better Money challenge on my Facebook feed. However, I could not find anything about this on the Choice website (www.choice.com.au). So was wondering:

  1. Is this legit or scam?
  2. Has anybody participated in the previous challenge? (Apparently another one was run late last year/early this year).
  3. If it is legit, and you participated, was it worth your while?

I am interested, but it does have some of the hallmarks of being a scam.

Here is the link:
CHOICE BetterMoney

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2

The URL is indeed a node in the Choice domain, strongly suggesting it is a Choice program of some sort.

As for scam signs:
the web site is better-money.choice.com.au, in the Choice domain - image
the T&C are clearly Choice’s (although look like fairly amateurish in presentation on a PC and stated as best viewed on your mobile) - image .

the BetterMoney Logo on the home page shows choice-better-money.thinkific.com - X
it does not explicitly indicate what you are joining - X
no obviously linked contact information -X
glowing testimonials - X

I’ll not comment further except I understand your scepticism. With the money back period and the ability to get a charge back from your card it is a safety net of sorts.

I’ll let @BrendanMays or @jhook respond further. Perhaps Choice web designers should read about the signs of a potentially scamming web site, mobile device or not?

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3

Thanks @PhilT, Yes, there are some signs of it being legitimate. The main things that raised my scam alert antennae included:

  1. There was nothing on the main Choice website about this campaign at all (ie I could not verify it independently or through secondary sources)
  2. The verbiage employed, created a sense of urgency “places are limited” and “only X days/hours remaining”
  3. Potentially questionable claims “… save over $80,000”
  4. Contradictory information. ie it says “no app download needed” next to a picture which looks like an app on a mobile device
  5. I found it on Facebook
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4

Hi @ChiVe and @PhilT
Thanks for your post. I work for the CHOICE Product Prototyping team and we are running the BetterMoney challenge. It is a new product being tested with a small group of participants and provides access to CHOICE experts for a financial health check including mortgage, super and health insurance. We do regularly run tests like this that are ‘under the radar’ in order to learn more about attracting new audiences and income to CHOICE. We have run this before and participants have achieved big savings particularly on their mortgage rates and super.

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5

It might not hurt in placing a logo on the front page of the Choice.com.au with a link to BetterMoney Challenge site so that anyone who checks its veracity can confirm quickly on the website. Otherwise some may not be willing to participate thinking it could be a scam (noting often scammers use URL similar to legitimate businesses to trap the unwary).

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Thanks for the timely reply @pgiles, I trust the observation re a potential scam site will be considered and regardless of radar, it will be upgraded so as not to tick so many ‘scam flags’. Cheers

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Seems like a good initiative from Choice. But the hyped up potential savings claimed just screamed scam when I saw it on Facebook.

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Thanks for confirming @pgiles. Yes, great initiative. I hope there are spots left … who knows, with all of this extra publicity generated by random Community members like this @ChiVe guy, there may not be anything left! :slight_smile:

Like they say on the KFC ad … “shut up and take my money!”

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As an ex ASIC MoneySmart person, I would definitely have warned consumers to delete any unsolicited emails suggesting some under the radar projects may provide substantial savings for participants! Ding Ding let the warning bells ring!!!

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